Electrochemical sensors are an importance devices in industrial safety, environmental and emissions monitoring, quality and process control and clinical diagnostic applications. They are sensitive, accurate, and low cost, and are used in many portable instruments as well as fixed systems.
Each sensor includes at least two electrodes and an electrolyte. The electrolyte can be an aqueous solution of an acid, an alkali, or a mineral salt; examples are sulfuric acid, phosphoric acid, potassium hydroxide, lithium chloride, and lithium perchorate. The electrolyte can also be of an organic type such as tetraethylammonium perchlorate (TEAP) in a low vapor pressure organic solvent. Because the volume of the electrolyte can change with time and with environmental conditions, a reservoir chamber is usually incorporated into the sensor to provide additional amounts of electrolyte and/or to allow for expansion of the electrolyte in certain environments.
For example, an aqueous electrolyte can lose water to the atmosphere when the relative humidity is low, and absorb water from the atmosphere when the relative humidity is high. The volume of the electrolyte therefore fluctuates with ambient conditions. If the relative humidity is held constant, the electrolyte will adjust its volume and concentration until equilibrium is reached with the surrounding atmosphere.
In order to use the electrolyte in the reservoir, a wick is typically employed inside the sensor cell, disposed in contact with both the electrolyte in the reservoir and the electrolyte between the electrodes. The wick draws the liquid electrolyte and transports it by capillary action. Because electrolyte is free to flow inside the reservoir chamber, some sensors have an adsorbent pad installed in the reservoir to immobilize the electrolyte.
Sensors including wicks are disclosed, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,587,003 and 7,534,333, both assigned to City Technology Limited, and incorporated herein by reference.
Commercially available gas sensors typically have a wick. Examples of such gas sensors include the 4 Series toxic gas sensors from City Technology Ltd. in the UK, and the 6A-CO and 6A-H2S sensors from Industrial Scientific Corporation in the US. Most available sensors have a wick that reaches an area in which the electrolyte is most likely to reside.
Current portable instruments are required to be small and convenient to carry. They are often limited in size, however, by the size of the sensors used therein. When sensors are small, the electrolyte reservoir is proportionally reduced in size. In such miniature sensors, it is not practical to place an adsorbent pad in the reservoir as it not only takes up the very limited free space, but also competes with the adsorbent material in the electrode stack for the limited volume of electrolyte. Without an adsorbent pad in the reservoir, however, the electrolyte tends to stay in corners due to surface tension, and loses contact with the wick that is required to transport the electrolyte. As a consequence, the electrode stack can dry out, even though there is a sufficient amount of electrolyte left in the reservoir, and when this occurs, the sensor has either no or low sensitivity, and/or long response times to the analyte of interest.